CHAPTER XVI.
SALAMANCA.
The great triumphs of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos did not lead to therapid successes which Wellington had hoped. The French generals,on hearing of the loss of the latter fortress, again fell back,and Wellington was so much hampered by shortness of money, by theinefficiency, obstinacy, and intrigues of the Portuguese Government,and by want of transport, that it was nearly three months before hecould get everything in readiness for an advance into Spain. At lastall was prepared, and on the 13th of June the army once more crossedthe Agueda and marched towards the Tamar in four columns. On the 17thit was within six miles of Salamanca, and Marshal Marmont, unable forthe moment to stem the tide of invasion, evacuated the city, whichthat evening blazed with illuminations, the people being half wildwith joy at their approaching deliverance. The French, however, hadnot entirely departed, for eight hundred men still held some verystrong forts overlooking and guarding the city.
These forts held out desperately; the British battering trainwas weak, and upon the 23d Marmont, having received considerablereinforcements, advanced to raise the siege. Wellington, however,refused to be tempted to leave his trenches to deliver a generalbattle, but faced the enemy with a portion of his army while hecontinued the siege.
Marmont, upon his part, believing that the forts could hold out forfifteen days, put off the attack, as he knew that large reinforcementswere coming up. His calculations were frustrated by one of the fortstaking fire on the 27th, when an assault was delivered, and the wholeof the forts surrendered; Marmont at once fell back across the Douro,there to await the arrival of his reinforcements.
Wellington, on his part, followed slowly, and his army took up aposition between Canizal and Castrejon, thereby covering the roadsfrom Toro and Tordesillas, the only points at which the French couldcross the river. The reports of the spies all agreed that the formerwas the place at which the crossing would be made.
On the 16th of July an officer rode into Canizal, at headlong pace,with the news that a reconnoitering party had crossed the Douro thatmorning near Tordesillas, and had found that place deserted, except bya garrison; and an hour later the news came in that three divisions ofthe enemy were already across the river at Toro. Five minutes laterthe Scudamores were on horseback, carrying orders that the whole ofthe army, with the exception of the fourth and light divisions, whichwere on the Trabancos, under General Cotton, were to concentrate atCanizal that night. By the morning the movement was accomplished.
The day wore on in somewhat anxious expectation, and towards afternoonWellington, accompanied by Lord Beresford, and escorted by Alten's,Bock's and Le Marchant's brigades of cavalry, started to make areconnaissance of the enemy's movements. Caution was needed for theadvance, as it was quite uncertain whether the French were pushingon through the open country towards Canizal, or whether they werefollowing the direct road from Toro to Salamanca. Evening closed in,but no signs of the French army were seen, and the party halted aboutsix miles from Toro, and small parties of cavalry were despatchedright and left to scour the country, and find out where the enemy hadgone.
"It's very strange where the French can have got to," was the remarkmade, for the fiftieth time among the staff.
The detached parties returned, bringing no news whatever, and LordWellington again advanced slowly and cautiously towards Toro. Smallparties were pushed on ahead, and presently an officer rode backwith the news that he had been as far as the river, and that not aFrenchman was to be seen. It was too late to do any more, and theyremained in uncertainty whether the enemy had recrossed the riverafter making a demonstration, or whether they had marched to theirright, so as to make a circuit, and throw themselves between CiudadRodrigo and Salamanca, upon the line of communication of the Britisharmy.
Lord Wellington, with his staff, took possession of a desertedfarm-house, the cavalry picketed their horses round it, and theScudamores, who had been more than twenty-four hours in the saddle,wrapped themselves in their cloaks, and stretching themselves on thefloor, were soon asleep. Just at midnight the sound of a horse'sfootfall approaching at a gallop was heard, and an officer, who hadridden, without drawing rein, from Canizal, dashed up to the farm.
Five minutes later the whole party were in the saddle again. The newswas important, indeed. Marmont had drawn his whole army back acrossthe Toro on the night of the 16th, had marched to Tordesillas, crossedthere, and in the afternoon, after a march of fifty miles, had fallenupon Cotton's outposts, and driven them across the Trabancos.
Not a moment's time was lost by Wellington after he received the news;but, unfortunately, six precious hours had already been wasted, owingto the despatches not having reached him at Canizal. With the threebrigades of cavalry he set off at once towards Alaejos, while anofficer was despatched to Canizal, to order the fifth division tomarch with all speed to Torrecilla de la Orden, six miles in the rearof Cotton's position at Castrejon.
Four hours' riding brought them to Alaejos, where a halt for two orthree hours was ordered, to rest the weary horses and men. Soon afterdaybreak, however, all thought of sleep was banished by the roar ofartillery, which told that Marmont was pressing hard upon Cotton'stroops. "To horse!" was the cry, and Lords Wellington and Beresford,with their staff, rode off at full speed towards the scene of action,with the cavalry following hard upon their heels. An hour's ridebrought them to the ground. Not much could be seen, for the countrywas undulating and bare, like the Brighton Downs, and each depressionwas full of the white morning mist, which wreathed and tossedfantastically from the effects of the discharges of firearms, themovements of masses of men, and the charges of cavalry hidden withinit. Upon a crest near at hand were a couple of British guns, with asmall escort of horse.
Suddenly, from the mist below, a party of some fifty French horsemendashed out and made for the guns. The supporting squadron, surprisedby the suddenness of the attack, broke and fled; the French followedhard upon them, and just as Lord Wellington, with his staff, gainedthe crest, pursuers and pursued came upon them, and in pell-mellconfusion the whole were borne down to the bottom of the hill. Fora few minutes it was a wild melee. Lords Wellington, Beresford, andtheir staff, with their swords drawn, were in the midst of the fight,and friends and foes were mingled together, when the leading squadronsof the cavalry from Alaejos came thundering down, and very few of theFrenchmen who had made that gallant charge escaped to tell the tale.
The mists were now rapidly clearing up, and in a short time the wholeFrench army could be seen advancing. They moved towards the Britishleft, and Wellington ordered the troops at once to retire. The Britishfell back in three columns, and marched for the Guarena, throughTorrecilla de la Orden. The French also marched straight for theriver, and now one of the most singular sights ever presented inwarfare was to be seen.
The hostile armies were marching abreast, the columns being but a fewhundred yards apart, the officers on either side waving their hands toeach other. For ten miles the armies thus pressed forward the officersurging the men, and these straining every nerve to get first to theriver. From time to time the artillery of either side, finding aconvenient elevation, would pour a few volleys of grape into theopposing columns, but the position of the two armies, did not oftenadmit of this. Gradually Cotton's men, fresher than the French, whohad, in the two previous days, marched fifty miles, gained ground,and, reaching the river, marched across by the ford, the winners ofthe great race by so little that one division, which halted for amoment to drink, was swept by forty pieces of French artillery, whicharrived on the spot almost simultaneously with it.
On the Guarena the British found the remaining divisions of the army,which had been brought up from Canizal. These checked Marmont in anattempt to cross at Vallesa, while the 29th and 40th Regiments, witha desperate bayonet charge, drove Carier's French division back as itattempted to push forward beyond Castrillo. Thus the two armies facedeach other on the Guarena, and Marmont had gained absolutely nothingby his false movement at Toro, and his long and
skillful detour byTordesillas.
Quickly the rest of the day passed, as did the one which followed, thetroops on both sides resting after their fatigues. Wellington expectedto be attacked on the next morning and his army was arranged in twolines ready for the combat. At daybreak, however, Marmont moved hisarmy up the river, crossed at a ford there, and marched straightfor Salamanca, thus turning Wellington's right, and threatening hiscommunications. The British at once fell back, and the scene of theprevious day was repeated the armies marching along the crest of twoparallel hills within musket shot distance of each other.
This time however, the French troops, although they had marchedconsiderably farther than the English proved themselves the bestmarchers, and when night fell Wellington had the mortification ofseeing them in possession of the ford of Huerta on the Tormes, thussecuring for Marmont the junction with an army which was approachingunder King Joseph, and also the option of either fighting or refusingbattle. Wellington felt his position seriously threatened, and sentoff a despatch to the Spanish General Castanos, stating his inabilityto hold his ground, and the probability that he should be obliged tofall back upon Portugal. This letter proved the cause of the victoryof Salamanca for it was intercepted by the French, and Marmont,fearing that Wellington would escape him, prepared at once to throwhimself upon the road to Ciudad Rodrigo, and thus cut the British lineof retreat, in spite of the positive order which he had received fromKing Joseph not to fight until he himself arrived with his army.
Upon the 21st both armies crossed the Tormes, the French at Alba andHuerta, the British at Aldea Lengua, and San Marta. Upon that day thenews reached Wellington that General Chauvel, with 2000 cavalry, and20 guns, would reach Marmont on the evening of the 22d, or the morningof the 23d, and the English general therefore resolved to retreat,unless Marmont should, by some mistake, give him a chance of fightingto advantage.
Close to the British right, and the French left, were two steep andrugged hills, called the Hermanitos, or Brothers, and soon afterdaybreak on the 22d, the French seized upon the one nearest to them,while the British took possession of the other. Then, watching eachother, the two armies remained until noon, for Wellington could notcommence his retreat by daylight; but a long cloud of dust along theroad to Ciudad Rodrigo showed that the baggage of the army was already_en route_ for Portugal. Marmont now determined to make a bold stroketo cut off Wellington's retreat, and, although all his troops had notyet arrived, he ordered Maucune, with two divisions, to march round bythe left and menace the Ciudad road. It was at three o'clock in theafternoon, and Wellington, who had been up all night, thinking thatMarmont would make no move that day, had gone to lie down for an houror two, when Tom Scudamore who, from an elevated point, was watchingthe movements of the enemy, hurried in with the news that the Frenchwere pushing their left round towards the Ciudad Road.
Wellington leaped to his feet, and hurried to the high ground, wherehe beheld, with stern satisfaction, that Marmont, in his eagernessto prevent the British escape, had committed the flagrant error ofdetaching his wing from his main body. Instantly he issued ordersfor an attack, and the great mass of men upon the British Hermanitomoved down upon the plain to attack Maucune in flank, while the thirddivision was ordered to throw itself across his line of march, and toattack him in front. As the advance across the plain would be taken inflank by the fire from the French Hermanito, General Pack was orderedto assail that position directly the British line had passed it.
Marmont, standing on the French Hermanito, was thunder-struck atbeholding the plain suddenly covered with enemies, and a tremendousfire was at once opened upon the advancing British. Officer afterofficer was despatched to hurry up the French troops still upon themarch, and when Marmont saw the third division dash across Maucune'spath, he was upon the point of hurrying himself to the spot, when ashell burst close to him, and he was dashed to the earth with a brokenarm, and two deep wounds in his side.
Thus, at the critical point of the battle, the French army was leftwithout a head.
It was just five o'clock when Pakenham, with the third division, felllike a thunderbolt upon the head of Maucune's troops. These, taken bysurprise by this attack, on the part of an enemy whom they had thoughtto see in full flight, yet fought gallantly, and strove to gain timeto open out into order of battle. Bearing onwards, however, withirresistible force, the third division broke the head of the column,and drove it back upon its supports. Meanwhile, the battle raged allalong the line; in the plain the fourth division carried the villageof Arapiles, and drove back Bonnet's division with the bayonet, andthe fifth division attacked Maucune's command in flank, while Pakenhamwas destroying its front.
Marmont was succeeded in his command by Bonnet, who was also wounded,and Clausel, an able general, took the command. He reinforced Maucunewith his own divisions, which had just arrived, and, for a while,restored the battle. Then, past the right and left of Pakenham'sdivision, the British cavalry, under Le Marchant, Anson, and D'Urban,burst through the smoke and dust, rode down twelve hundred of theFrench infantry, and then dashed on at the line behind. Nobly thecharge was pressed, the third division following at a run, and thecharge ceased not until the French left was entirely broken and fiveguns, and two thousand prisoners taken.
But forty minutes had passed since the first gun was fired, and theFrench defeat was already all but irretrievable, and the third,fourth, and fifth divisions now in line, swept forward as to assuredvictory. Clausel, however, proved equal to the emergency. Hereinforced Bonnet's division with that of Fereij, as yet fresh andunbroken, and, at the same moment, Sarrut's and Brennier's divisionsissued from the forest, and formed in the line of battle. Behind themthe broken troops of Maucune's two divisions re-formed, and the battlewas renewed with terrible force.
Pack, at the same moment, attempted unsuccessfully to carry the FrenchHermanito by assault with his Portuguese division, and the fate of thebattle was again in the balance; the British divisions outnumbered,and outflanked, began to fall back, Generals Cole, Leith, and Spry,were all wounded, and the French cavalry threatened the flank of theline. Wellington, however, had still plenty of reserves in hand, andat this critical moment he launched them at the enemy. The sixthdivision was brought up from the second line, and hurled at the centerof the enemy in a fierce and prolonged charge, while the light andfirst divisions were directed against the French divisions which weredescending from the French Hermanito, and against that of Foy, whilethe seventh division and the Spaniards were brought up behind thefirst line. Against so tremendous an assault as this the French couldmake no stand, and were pushed back in ever increasing disorder to theedge of the forest, where Foy's and Maucune's divisions stood at bay,and covered their retreat in the fast gathering darkness.
Wellington believed that he should capture a great portion of thebeaten army, for he relied upon the Castle of Alba de Formes,commanding the ford at that place, being held by the Spaniards, butthese had evacuated the place on the preceding day, and had not eveninformed Wellington that they had done so.
Thus, hidden by the night, the French retreated with but slight lossfrom the pursuing columns. In the battle the French had forty-twothousand men and seventy-four guns; the Allies forty-six thousand andsixty guns, but of the infantry a division were composed of Spaniards,and these could not be relied upon in any way. It was probably themost rapidly fought action ever known, and a French officer describedit as the defeat of forty thousand men in forty minutes. The Frenchloss was over twelve thousand in killed, wounded, and prisoners, andso completely were they dispersed that Clausel a week afterwardscould only collect twenty thousand to their standards. It was a greatvictory, and celebrated as the first which Wellington had gained overthe French, for although at Talavera and Busaco he had repulsed theFrench attack, he was not in either case in a position to do more thanhold his ground.
Throughout this short and desperate fight the Scudamores had beenfully engaged in conveying orders from one part of the field toanother. Shot and shell
flew around them in all directions, and yetwhen they met at the end of the action they found that they hadescaped without a scratch. The day following the battle the pursuitbegan. Had King Joseph's advancing army united with Clausel's brokentroops, he could have opposed Wellington's advance with a force farsuperior in numbers to that defeated at Salamanca. But Joseph, afterhesitating, fell back in one direction, Clausel retreated in another,the opportunity for concentration was lost, and Wellington found nofoe to bar his way on his triumphant march upon Madrid.
Joseph fell back from the capital as the English approached, leavingsome thousands of men in the strong place known as the Retiro,together with an immense amount of arms, ammunition, and militarystores of all kinds, all of which, including the troops, fell into thehands of the English within a few days of their arrival at Madrid.
It was a proud moment for the Scudamores, as riding behind LordWellington they entered Madrid on the 14th August.
The city was half mad with joy. Crowds lined the streets, while everywindow and balcony along the route was filled with ladies, who wavedtheir scarves, clapped their hands, and showered flowers upon theheads of their deliverers. Those below, haggard and half-starved,for the distress in Madrid was intense, thronged round the general'shorse, a shouting, weeping throng, kissing his cloak, his horse, anyportion of his equipments which they could touch. Altogether it wasone of the most glorious, most moving, most enthusiastic welcomes everoffered to a general.
The next fortnight was spent in a round of fetes, bull fights, andballs, succeeding each other rapidly, but these rejoicings were but athin veil over the distress which was general throughout the town. Thepeople were starving, and many deaths occurred daily from hunger. TheBritish could do but little to relieve the suffering which they sawaround them, for they themselves were--owing to the utter breakdown ofall the arrangements undertaken by the Portuguese government, and tothe indecision and incapacity of the Home Government--badly fed, andmuch in arrears of their pay. Nevertheless, the officers did what theycould, got up soup kitchens, and fed daily many hundreds of starvingwretches.
The heat was excessive and a very great deal of illness took placeamong the troops. The French were gathering strength in the South,and Wellington determined upon marching north and seizing Burgos, animportant place, but poorly fortified. Leaving General Hill with twodivisions at Madrid, he marched with the rest of the army upon Burgos.